Railay

Railay, Thailand… what an amazing place! It’s not an island but it mine as well be as you can only get here by boat and it sure has the island feel. I landed here yesterday around noon after a grueling 10 minute longtail boat ride from Ao Nang (I’m kidding by the way when I say grueling). The place I’m staying at is a little bit of a walk, maybe 5 minutes but feels like forever when you have a 30 pound pack on your back. But, it was worth it. My room doesn’t have air conditioning but I don’t care because it has a pool, which I’m actually sitting next to as I type this. And it’s only 700 baht/night ($21).

So yesterday, after I dropped off the elephant from my back in my room, I set out to explore the area. I ran into some pretty cool shit!!! First I cam across a “trail” to the viewpoint. But this was nothing like any trail I’ve seen. It was straight up a rock face and I really mean straight up. The rocks were pretty jagged so you could get some good hand and foot holds and there was a rope to help you up as well but it was still really steep. This “trail” was truly reminiscent of the rock scramble up the ‘hay stack’ on the top of Mount Si at home. I only had my keen shoes (thank God), shorts, bikini top, and my camera so I thought “what the hell”. It was a really fun climb up and the view was superb. There was also another trail to a lagoon. I made it half way to the lagoon and decided it wasn't worth the unnecessary risk, as the scramble down to the lagoon was a bit beyond my comfort zone being along and all. But I have to say, the journey back down the ‘trail’ was much harder than going up it. But I made it and was pretty proud of myself, not really for doing it so much but for doing it alone.

Once I got back down I continued on the path I originally started on. At the end was another amazing white sand beach and really cool caves and rock masses hanging from above. Off in the corner was a cave with a lot of ‘stuff’ in it. I assumed it must be a shrine to Buddha as they are all over the place here in Thailand. As I got closer the tons of multi-colored wood carvings (big and small) looked a lot like penises. This cave was filled with brightly colored wood carved penises. “Is this really a shrine to the penis?” I thought? No, it has to be something else but I had no idea what. So I took a few pictures and went on my way. Later I found out that yes, indeed it was a shrine to the penis. I wish I would have taken more pictures. =)

On my way back down the cement walkway (the way I came) I ran into an entire clan of wild monkeys. The leader was apparent as he stood guard over his clan of women and baby monkeys. I think I counted 8 total. That was pretty cool. And of course I took many pictures.

Later that day as I was lounging by the pool I met a very nice girl, Hanna, from London traveling solo as well. She then introduced me to some other girls and we had a blast together that night. They loved my Roger Rabbit dance. =) Railay has a very cool vibe. It’s not too crowded and super laid back.

Today Hanna and I paid 400 baht each ($12) and took a 4 island snorkeling boat tour. It was fun. I’m glad I did it, but was even more glad to have someone cool to share it with.

Tomorrow I leave the Andaman Sea side of Thailand and head over to the Gulf of Thailand side of the country. I’ll catch a longtail boat back to Ao Nang and hop on the bus at 3:00 pm to Surat Thani. I think it’s about a 6 hour ride. But the busses here are pretty plush so it shouldn’t be too bad. Then at 11:00 pm I hop on the overnight ferry to Ko Tao and arrive in Ko Tao at 6 am. It’s going to take a while to get there but once I’m there I hear it’s amazing.

So that’s all for now. My battery is running very low and it’s almost midnight so should probably sign off. Hope to upload some pictures next post.

I hope you are all well.